Meet the producers

At the heart of the Fairtrade system are the farmers and workers, members of Fairtrade certified producer organizations. Here you'll find inspiring stories of their work and how they seek to build a better future for themselves and their communities.

Producer stories and case studies

Its farmers operate in a country that experienced tremendous chaos and unrest during elections four years ago. So it may be no coincidence that a strong, democratic structure and a clear sense of direction have been central to...

Tea is an essential part of the economy in Sri Lanka employing over a million people. Recently, effects of soil erosion, climate change, and the rights of workers have pushed sustainability to the forefront. However at Stassen...

By Fairtrade India
Each day Sunny Babu rises with the birds: 4am is the best time to really see what’s happening with plants. As the resident plant doctor serving the needs of 1,000 Fairtrade farmers in the Manarcadu Social...

The Manduvira Cooperative in Paraguay has transformed from a group of farmers struggling with unfair prices and unjust trading practices into the world’s leading producer and exporter of organic and Fairtrade certified sugar.

Like most people in his village, Pardaali Holov is a pomegranate farmer. So were his parents and his parents’ parents. The mountainous area around the village of Varganza, Uzbekistan, where he and his family live is famous for...

When we talk about Oro Verde – or green gold – at Fairtrade, we usually refer to coffee. But the Oro Verde Cooperative in Peru has branched out beyond their staple coffee crop to bring stability to the entire...

Vanilla is a picky crop. In its native environment in Central America, the plant relies on a symbiotic relationship with a species of bee for pollination before vanilla beans sprout. When grown in other parts of the world, the...

Standing at Fero Cooperative’s collection station, a steady stream of people with sacks of red coffee cherries perched on their backs lines up at the scales. A dignified man with tattered clothes carefully weighs the bags as...

Charles Njuguna is one of 6,000 farmers in Othaya, Kenya, and a co-owner of the Iriaini Tea Factory. Every day he works from 7am till 4pm, tossing tea leaves in the basket strapped on his back. Charles is a small-scale holder...

At Coopervitae, the farmers may lead simple lives but their horizons are wide. They draw on the century-long Brazilian tradition in coffee growing to develop a product that will satisfy the taste of today’s consumer.
The joint...

Springfield Farms is an example of an organization which has placed its values above all else. Its commitment to both people and environment shows in all the farm's activities. More sales of their Fairtrade avocadoes and lychees...

The beekeepers of Cooperative Pueblo Apicola are spread across Uruguay, but they have one thing in common: they all live in rural areas, and as a result have limited commercial opportunities. Before they formed the co-op, the...

The banana producers of the Asociación de Bananeros Orgánicos Solidarios (BOS) in Peru are used to hard work. In recent years, they have banded together to make a number of investments to their association, rapidly expanding...

It has been a difficult year and a half for coffee cooperatives. Volatile prices, reduced crops due to climate change, and coffee bushes reaching the end of their productive cycle are just some of the challenges they have been...

For Mariano Manzuela, a member of the CONACADO cooperative in the Dominican Republic, Fairtrade means four of his children attend secondary school on scholarships from the Fairtrade Premium. What started as a development project...

In the Gouro language of the Haut Sassandra region in southeast Côte d’Ivoire, Kavokiva means “we come together”. And that is exactly what more than 600 farmers did when they founded the Coopérative Agricole Kavokiva de Daloa in...

In 2005, having decided to sell tea to increase their income the villagers of Nam Lanh, in north Vietnam, were able to improve their standard of living. Fairtrade has brought additional benefits that have enabled the villagers to...

In an area of widespread poverty thirty five beekeepers got together in 1994 to sell their honey. In debt to local money lenders they still struggled to make a decent living. Since becoming Fairtrade certified the beekeepers are...

The Association of Small Producers of Saman and Anexos (APPBOSA) has been Fairtrade certified since the end of 2003. They have used the Fairtrade Premium to construct a cableway to transport their bananas from the trees to the...

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